


This Love Story Might Just Start In A Pillow Fort

by seibelsays



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Grumpy Bucky Barnes, Marvel Fluff Bingo 2021, Pillow & Blanket Forts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 13:47:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29369496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seibelsays/pseuds/seibelsays
Summary: And on days like today, when the mission had gone to shit and they’d lost good people and he’d been beaten to hell and back - he wanted her there. When Steve and Sam and Natasha and Clint were all too loud and too pushy and too much, Darcy was the only one he wanted around.But he had no idea if she wanted any of that and he was too much of a goddamned coward to ask. So he kept his mouth shut and kept them in this limbo where they were more than friends but less than anything else. It might be killing him, just a little.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Darcy Lewis
Comments: 44
Kudos: 226
Collections: Marvel Fluff Bingo





	This Love Story Might Just Start In A Pillow Fort

**Author's Note:**

> For my Marvel Fluff Bingo square: Pillow Forts

“For crying out loud, Steve, _I’m fine_. Go worry after Wilson or something.”

“Sam wasn’t hit, Buck,” Steve argued, his tone firm and face set in that _ridiculous_ scowl of his. If he hadn’t been so tired, Bucky might have tried to punch him.

“Sam very much _was_ hit, thank you,” Sam grumbled from somewhere behind them. “But Sam wasn’t blown off a damn building.”

“Controlled falling is still falling,” Natasha supplied as she helped Sam limp along. “It’s just falling with style.”

“Whose side are you on?” Sam asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

Natasha grinned. “Well it wouldn’t be very fun if I just _told_ you, now would it?”

Bucky grunted, trying to cover the pain in his side as he pulled out of Steve’s grasp. “I’m _fine._ And I didn’t fall, I jumped!”

“You were shot!” Steve replied.

“Three times!” Natasha added.

“There is shrapnel!” Steve continued.

“And probably some gravel from that road rash,” Natasha added again, shooing them all into the medical wing.

Bucky reminded himself that they all meant well and he really _really_ shouldn’t kill any of them. Maiming was also not advised.

No matter how tempting it all sounded. Killing and/or maiming his own team was not a feasible option.

The nurse at the desk barely glanced up from her chart as she pointed to an alcove with free beds.

Bucky sullenly made his way to a bed, if only because continuing to fuss would make the nurse’s life miserable and nurses were literal angels sent from heaven and they didn’t deserve his shit. He would cooperate for now.

He glowered at Steve as he settled back against the pillows. “You took a nasty blow to the head, you know. Don’t think I didn’t see that. You gonna get yourself checked out too?”

Steve waved him off. “I’m fine, it was nothing.”

The only thing that kept Bucky from launching himself off the bed to strangle Steve Rogers was the fact that it would cause more paperwork for the nurse.

“Hey man!” Clint greeted as the curtain next to his bed violently slid open with a _shiiiiiink!_

Bucky frowned at him. The man was practically bandaged from head to toe, with both legs suspended in traction. “What the f-”

“Skeeball accident,” Clint nodded. 

“Why are you like this?” Bucky asked him, even though he really didn’t want to know. He settled further against the pillows, laying his head back and closing his eyes. “Wake me when they need me for something.”

“Uh, Buck, I’m not sure that-”

“Shhhhhhh,” Bucky said, reaching up to clamp one hand over Steve’s mouth. “No more talking.”

* * *

Bucky closed the door with a decisive _click_ and flipped the lock as he leaned against the frame and closed his eyes.

“Okay, I’ll be around later to check on you!” Steve called through the door.

Great.

The absolute last thing he needed or wanted was Steve fussing over him like a mother hen. He hadn’t been that badly injured when the rooftop where he’d made his sniper nest had blown up. He had absolutely jumped from the roof well before everything was on fire and collapsed.

Mostly.

He counted to 10, ensuring that Steve was well away from his door before he moved again. He pushed away from the door and opened his eyes, rolling his shoulder with a soft groan as he made his way further into his home. He dropped most of his gear in the little laundry area in the hall before trudging back towards his bedroom. 

Shower. Sleep. Assess any persistent damage. _Then_ maybe he would let Steve back into the apartment. 

Maybe.

* * *

A soft thump woke Bucky from his dream. He twitched a little as he woke, then firmly clamped down on his movements and responses while he listened for any further noise. Whatever had woken him was too loud to have been Liho breaking into his kitchen again, but not loud enough to be immediately concerning.

He mentally flipped through the possibilities. Liho _could_ have brought Lucky with her - Clint’s dog was much bigger than Natasha’s cat, and not nearly as nimble. Liho tended to stick closely to Natasha when they got back from a mission, however - it was probably too soon for the cat Natasha insisted was a stray to stray too far from home.

It could be an intruder. A very misinformed and unfortunate one, but it wasn’t impossible. If someone was really trying to rob him, they were likely to be disappointed. If someone was trying to kill him, well. They were likely to be disappointed as well.

That left...Steve really. Bucky mentally groaned and settled back into the pillows a little further.

Maybe he should just grab the gun from the nightstand and shoot whoever it was through the wall. As long as he aimed high enough, it wouldn’t actually hit a dog or a cat. Then he could go back to sleep and deal with the cleanup later. 

It was a tempting idea. A very tempting idea.

But that would involve _paperwork_ and _drywall_ and honestly the lady who handled those sorts of things in this building was really very sweet and didn’t deserve that nonsense from him. The thought of bringing more trouble to her door just wasn’t palatable. He could suck it up and deal with whatever was going on in his living room without resorting to gunfire.

Maybe.

He sat up silently and considered his nightstand, then grabbed the knife and left the gun and slipped out of his bedroom to creep down the hall. There were more soft noises now, the kind someone would make when they weren’t doing anything noisy, but also weren’t trying to keep quiet either. Both an intruder and a nursemaid-mode Steve would be doing their best to muffle their sounds. 

Who the hell was in his living room?

He reached the end of the hall and peeked around the corner, then quickly pulled back in stunned confusion. He rubbed his eyes and slapped himself lightly. Maybe he was still dreaming. He peeked out again, and found himself stumbling forward as the scene in front of him had not changed at all. 

“Buckybear!” Darcy greeted, poking her head out from the mass of pillows and blankets heaped on his couch.

“Darcy?” Bucky replied, his voice gravely with sleep and surprise.

“You sound shocked. Why are you shocked?”

“What are you doing here?”

Darcy leaned back on her heels and gave him a strange look. “Am I not supposed to be here?”

Bucky moved further into the living room and tried to make sense of what was happening. Darcy had somehow pulled every pillow and blanket in his house into the living room and piled them all on the couch, where she was making some sort of...nest or something.

“No, you’re fine,” he said, as he had a sudden, if distant, realization that he had a pillow and a duvet on his bed when he went to sleep that hadn’t been there when he’d woken up just now. She hadn’t just taken everything from the linen closet and the guest room. No, Darcy Lewis was a crazy mother fucker who had broken into his bedroom while he slept and stole his pillow and he hadn’t even _noticed_. That was a thought he would have to deal with later, because there were about seven thousand layers to that realization and Darcy was looking at him expectantly right now. “What are you doing?”

Darcy aimed a tiny, teasing smile at him and he really needed to do something about that. Specifically, he needed to do _absolutely nothing_ about it because she was his friend and nothing more. “What does it look like?”

He looked from Darcy to the pile of pillows and back, trying to puzzle out what she was getting at when realization dawned on him. He let out an irritated sigh and wandered toward the kitchen. “You don’t have to babysit me, Darcy, I’m fine.”

“Yeah, you are,” Darcy muttered, then coughed and spoke up. “Hey, while you’re in there, make the coffee would you? Cinnamon rolls are done and are on the warmer - I love that your stove does that, have I ever mentioned that? - so when the coffee is done, we should be all set. I’m just finishing up here.”

Bucky waved a tired hand at her and did as he was told. “So you haven’t told me what you’re doing?”

“Do you want to watch _The Emperor’s New Groove_ or _Anastasia_? And if you pick anything besides _The Emperor’s New Groove_ , you’re wrong.”

Bucky smiled, despite himself. “ _Emperor’s New Groove_.”

“Good choice, boo. Good choice.”

Bucky watched as Darcy resumed her task, rearranging the pillows and blankets into some configuration that he assumed made sense to her. He felt his irritation with the world slip away as she worked, the way she smiled to herself whenever a pillow behaved or blanket draped exactly the way she’d intended. 

He really, _really_ needed to do something about that.

Because that was the thing. Darcy Lewis was his friend. A good friend. One of the best, really. And maybe she was something a little bit more, he didn’t know. They’d never gone on what he would consider a date, but the future was weird about things like that. All he really knew for sure was that at the end of the day, she was the only person he wanted to see. Not just that she was the only person he could tolerate seeing - no, he actively _wanted_ to see her at the end of the day. 

He wanted to listen to her ramble about the science they were doing. He looked forward to her rants about the interns or competing labs or other asshole scientists who still insisted that Jane was a crackpot or Darcy wasn’t qualified. He wanted to help her duck calls from her mother and help walk her grandfather through video calls. He wanted to bicker over the remote and help plan a grocery list and maybe finally go and adopt that little white cat she’d shown him on the shelter’s website.

And on days like today, when the mission had gone to shit and they’d lost good people and he’d been beaten to hell and back - he wanted her there. When Steve and Sam and Natasha and Clint were all too loud and too pushy and too much, Darcy was the only one he wanted around.

But he had no idea if _she_ wanted any of that and he was too much of a goddamned coward to ask. So he kept his mouth shut and kept them in this limbo where they were more than friends but less than anything else. It might be killing him, just a little.

And Steve knew all this, of course. So of course Steve sent Darcy in when Bucky wouldn’t let anyone else close.

The coffee beeped, signaling that the brew was complete. Bucky poured the fresh coffee into an airpot to keep warm, then put two mugs on a tray with two plates of cinnamon rolls and took all of their treats into the living room, where Darcy stood triumphantly grinning at her handiwork.

“Perfect timing, as usual,” she said.

Bucky sighed, unable to match her enthusiasm just now. “I’m fine Darce. I don’t need a minder. I wasn’t hurt all that badly, I just need a day to rest up.”

Darcy gave him a confused look. “Uh, okay? Wait, you were hurt?”

Bucky frowned at her. “Not -” He cut himself off, not really willing to lie to her. “Sort of. It’s fine. Steve didn’t send you?”

“Steve’s your captain, not mine, Buckaroo.”

“So what are you doing here?”

“It’s Friday.”

Oh. Right. Friday night movie night. Their tradition. Bucky felt a tiny tendril of guilt seep through his annoyance, but he held firm. “And all this?” he asked, gesturing at the pillows as he set the coffee and cinnamon rolls on the little coffee table Darcy had positioned in front of her work.

“It’s a pillow fort.”

“A pillow fort.”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“It’s snowing and like, negative 12 degrees out there. There were icicles on my eyelashes when I came in. I called Linda, gave her the expense card, just in case."

The last of Bucky’s bad mood evaporated. “You’re bankrolling the Night Nurse now?”

“Snow! Wind chill! It’s rough out there.” Darcy looked away, focusing on readjusting the pillows in front of her to better support the fort’s ceiling. “Besides, she helped you when you needed it. So.”

“Thank you Darcy.”

“Oh yeah, spending Tony Stark’s money is so hard.”

Bucky had to laugh at that. “He won’t miss it, I’m sure.”

“Well that’s the damn truth, if I’ve ever heard it.” Darcy carefully crawled into the pillow fort and settled in. “Don’t forget to bring the remote in, yeah? Once I’m comfortable, I will not be moving.”

Bucky grabbed the remote and knelt down, taking in the full scope of Darcy’s handiwork. The entire fort looked surprisingly structurally sound. He judged his best approach and carefully crawled in to join Darcy. He handed her the remote, then leaned forward to grab the cinnamon rolls and coffee, bringing them inside the fort as well.

“All set?” he asked.

“I do believe I have all I require, yes.”

“Start the movie then.”

20 minutes into the movie, the entire room went dark with a soft _zzzzzppppptttt_ sound. The tv blinked out and even the sound of the heat rushing through the vents went quiet. Bucky carefully reached for the blanket hanging beside him and gently lifted it, confirming that the apartment was completely dark.

The power was out.

“Isn’t this supposed to be the most advanced building in the world?” Darcy grumbled.

“Even Tony Stark can’t defeat the weather yet,” Bucky replied. Darcy made a distinct _hurmph_ sound, letting him know exactly what she thought about that. He grinned briefly, then grew serious again. “It’s going to get cold in here fast if the power’s out for long. It’s freezing outside.”

“Then it’s very convenient that a very smart someone already had this lovely pillow fort built, isn’t it?” Darcy teased. “We’ll be fine in here.” Darcy set her empty plate aside, the porcelain plate clinking against her coffee cup as she set it down, then pulled a blanket over both of them. She curled into his side, laying her head on his chest. He shifted slightly, wrapping an arm around her as he grasped the hand she’d placed over his heart. 

“Is this okay?” she asked. “I’m not bothering your side?”

Bucky looked down at her with a half-hearted scowl. “I thought you hadn’t heard about my injuries.”

“I hadn’t, but thank you for confirming that it was an injury to this side. Were you stabbed again or is it just bruising this time?”

Bucky growled softly, mostly annoyed at himself for walking into her trap. “Just bruising.”

“So that means you were shot. Got it.” Darcy’s smile softened a little. “But seriously. You’d tell me if this was hurting you, right?”

“Yes. I’d tell you.”

“Good.”

Bucky braced himself for more questions, more _concern_ , but Darcy remained quiet. She pulled the blanket a little higher, accidentally exposing his feet to the rapidly cooling air of the apartment. 

“Hey,” he scolded lightly.

“Sorry.” She didn’t sound sorry at all.

He wiggled his toes a little and flexed his feet, trying to somehow grasp the blanket and pull it back down, but had no luck. He let out an exaggerated sigh as he leaned away from her slightly to pull the blanket back. She laughed as he settled back into the pillows and pulled her close again.

“I should kick you out of my pillow fort for that,” he grumbled.

“Oh this is _your_ pillow fort now?”

“I should make you go fend for yourself in the cold wasteland of the hallway,” he continued. “See if you can find your way back to your own apartment in the dark.”

“You would never.”

He sighed. “That’s probably true.”

“You’re a good man, Buck,” Darcy said, smiling into his chest. 

“You might be alone in that opinion.”

“Sweet. I love being right.”

He didn’t have a response for that. He never did, when she showed such absolute faith in him.

She always had faith in him.

And never coddled him, even when he was injured or having a bad day. She’d show concern, sure, but would never coddle him.

And she was always there - with a smile or a movie or dinner. She liked being around him, liked telling him about her day, liked hearing about his.

He tensed as all the pieces fell together and Darcy must have felt the change in his posture. She burst out laughing, burying her face in his chest once more.

“ _Now_ you get it?” she laughed. “What was your final clue, Sherlock?”

“I’m a goddamn idiot,” Bucky said.

“Well that’s taking things a little far, but you did make me work for it more than I’m used to.” Darcy lifted her head and smiled up at him. “So can we stop already with the ‘will they or won’t they,’ ‘are they or aren’t they’ nonsense?”

“As soon as the power comes back, I’m taking you out,” Bucky promised.

“Uh no. Snow! Wind chill! Perfectly good pillow fort!” Darcy insisted. “I’m not going outside.”

“Well, we can’t have our first date in here,” Bucky argued.

“Why not?”

Bucky blinked at that, then thought about it. This couldn’t be a date. This was a terrible date.

Right?

“You can take me out to dinner next week, I promise. I might even wear the uncomfortable shoes for you.” Darcy leaned up and kissed him softly. “For now, let’s just enjoy the pillow fort, okay?”

“Okay,” he whispered. She coaxed him back into the pillows and let him get settled. When he held his arm out for her, she ducked under it and tucked herself into his side like she’d always done it. 

She _had_ always done it. Ever since their very first movie night, she’d always found a way to snuggle in close, even on the days when he hated everyone and everything. She had always been the exception.

He really was an idiot.

Darcy smiled up at him. “Pull the blanket a little, yeah? So we can watch the snow?”

He reached out and gently tugged on the blanket beside him, rearranging it so they could see the window. The snow was still falling heavily, swirling in the wind on its way to the ground. Bucky was happy to be inside, tucked away in Darcy’s pillow fort.

He looked down to see Darcy still smiling up at him. He leaned in slowly, pausing a breath away from her, waiting for her permission. She nodded infinitesimally and closed the distance between them.

It was true - he might be an idiot. Lucky for him, Darcy liked him anyway.


End file.
